Son Of Woman With Ebola Says She Is Getting Better

The son of a North Carolina-based missionary says his mother is doing well as she's being treated for the Ebola virus in an Atlanta hospital.

Jeremy Writebol told NBC's "Today" show in an interview broadcast Tuesday that Nancy Writenbol's eyes are getting brighter and she's even joking a little.

Jeremy Writebol said he had been concerned his mother might not make it when she was taken out of an ambulance at Emory University's hospital last week after being flown from Liberia. A second American, Dr. Kent Brantly, had been able to walk from the ambulance into the hospital.

Writebol said doctors have said they expect her to recover, though they haven't elaborated. He also said he wouldn't be surprised if his parents want to return to Liberia after she recovers.

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The husband of the second American aid worker recently diagnosed with Ebola says the patient is weak but showing signs of improvement.

The president of the aid group SIM USA said Tuesday that Nancy Writebol's husband described the woman as progressing. Bruce Johnson says he spoke with David Writebol, who said 59-year-old Nancy stood and got on a plane in Liberia with assistance to head to Atlanta for treatment. When she arrived Tuesday, she was wheeled in a stretcher.

David Writebol, still in Liberia, says the family was considering funeral arrangements, but now feels relieved and cautiously optimistic. He praised her treatment in Liberia.

SIM says it's working to bring David Writebol home.

Johnson says SIM has spent nearly $1 million since the diagnoses of Nancy Writebol and the first American brought back, 33-year-old Dr. Kent Brantly. He works for Samaritan's Purse. Johnson says that group has spent more than $1 million.

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The second American aid worker infected with Ebola in Liberia arrived in the United States on Tuesday for treatment. Nancy Writebol, 59, will be treated in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the same hospital that is treating the other American, Dr. Kent Brantly. A specially outfitted plane carrying Writebol landed in Bangor, Maine, for refueling on Tuesday morning and took off again for Atlanta.

Writebol and Brantly have been given with an experimental drug never tested on humans, and doctors and associates say that they have shown improvement. An official with Writebol’s aid organization, SIM USA, said Monday that she was “up and walking” before she left Africa and felt well enough to order a favorite Liberian dish, potato soup. Brantly and Writebol contracted Ebola while treating patients at a missionary clinic in Liberia.

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A special plane transporting the second American infected with Ebola has left Liberia's capital en route to Atlanta.

An Associated Press reporter saw the four-vehicle convoy that arrived at Monrovia's airport early Tuesday. The chartered plane took off at 1:12 a.m. local time.

Nancy Writebol, a missionary from North Carolina, will be treated at the same Atlanta hospital where an American doctor with Ebola already has been taken.

Writebol's son, Jeremy, said his mother "is still struggling" but that "there seems to be improvement."

The two Americans infected with Ebola are getting an experimental drug so novel it has never been tested for safety in humans

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